Hi we just purchased our first Montana and will be picking it up today. My wife and I are not new to camping. This will be our 6th camper in our camping experience. We were the owners of 1 Terry TT, 3 different Airstreams, and one Gulf Stream M/H before making the purchase on a Montana 5th wheel. It is a 2001 model 3295.

We have never had any experience with pull outs or 5th wheels before. Any advice, hints or constructive criticism is welcome.

This is also my first post; I guess this forum will take a little getting used to.

Welcome, Since you are experienced campers I would say the best thing to do is read the books and experiment for yourselves. If there is a specficic question there are tons of folks here who have...been there..done that.

Welcome Bill & Donna to the ever growing MOC Family. Being a first time Montana owner you could not have found a better place to garner all the info you would ever need concerning your new toy. Go back thru the old posts for tons of info and using specific words you can also use the "Search" feature and if you still have questions/concerns post a message and I promise that you will get the kind of response you desire.
RVing is RVing, be it in a 5er, TT, MH or a Pop-Up, and seeing that you do have a substantial background in RVing DO NOT hesitate jumping in and passing on some advice/suggestions of your own.

Welcome to the MOC forum. We were not new to RVing when we got our first Montana either. We went - conversion van to TT to MH and then the Montana. We were so pleased with it that we recently got our second Montana without even seriously considering another brand.

My only suggestion on the slide outs is; remember to double check the clearance with each slide before opening. One sure does not want to hit a pole, tree, or picnic table that usually seems to always been in the right spot at the wrong time. =) Congrats on your new coach...

You probably already know this, being experienced, but a sequential check list may be invaluable. There are a lot of small, but important things to do and overlooking just one of them can be costly. Doing them in the right order can eliminate do-overs. Happy RVing.....

Congratulations on you Montana. Once you have slides you will wonder how you ever got by without them. Just make sure nothing is in the way when you put them out and also check inside to make sure they will not hit anything when you retract them.

It was an all day affair getting the hitch on the truck and getting ready to head home. A member of the service group went over everything about the camper with me before we left; how to hook it up and disconnect it and all. After owning a M/H for the last two years all I can say now is that ¡§I feel like we got our freedom back.¡¨ Even my truck was happy to be towing again. I think my driving stress level went from about 90% down to about a .01%.

It Montana towed great all the way home. I didn't have anything but the standard mirrors on the truck for bringing it home. I'm waiting for some McKesh mirrors (http://www.hensleymfg.com/mckeshmirrors.html) to arrive soon. I've used them before and really know how great of a benefit they are in towing.

I expect to get about 7 MPG while towing. We were only getting around 4MPG on the MH, towing a car and running the generator for roof air. I will be very satisfied if when towing I get 7-8 MPG. I only get upwards of 10 MPG when not towing.

Well anyway, thanks again for the big response and I know where to find some answers now! ƒº

Welcome to the Forum, I was really apprehensive about towing the 5th wheel, I thought it would be vastly different than our old TT...and it was. 100% better towing. We are really happy with the way it is so livable as well.
Sue does use those child proof locks on the entertainment cabinet doors and the doors to the right of them in our 3400RL, they came open on us when towing, and you can't see them when you retract the slides, you might keep an eye on doors like those.
See you around the Forum.
Ozz

For avoiding putting the slides into inanimate objects, it is helpful to measure the distance each travels and write it down where you can find it. That's saved me more than once. We had a 2003 3295RK and enjoyed it immensely. It's a nice rig. Enjoy.